It would be great if we could all identify all of our mistakes so that we would only make them once in our lifetime, but no, many of us go on making the same ones over and over again. In taking a walk through my shop, I found numerous reminders of bad decisions in the past, or decisions that may have been correct at the time, but are no longer applicable to the current shop operation. Now is as good a time as any to get rid of those old mistakes and make room for new opportunities, both physically and mentally.

 

Mistakes may take many forms: tool purchases, material purchases, prototype projects started but not completed, prototype projects completed but found to be of little or no use currently, employees hired who are not working out either because of behavioral issues or lack of profitability for the company. It is also best to concentrate on what one does best, and hire other professionals in other fields to do what they do best. Shop locations may be too big or too small. The rent may be too high or the shop may be in the wrong location. Business needs change over time, and one has to recognize them and take the appropriate action. Knowing there is a problem that needs to be rectified and doing nothing about it is like waiting for a bomb to explode with all the ensuing damage and fallout.

 

All jobs or projects need to be encapsulated. They need to be treated as individual units and be self supporting economically and physically from the first contact to the final waste removal. Start the next project with a clean slate leaving past projects behind. If one uses the same material exclusively, then the following does not apply, but for those of us that use a different species for each job, the amount of time and effort spent trying to remember to utilize that leftover sheet of material from the last job will far outweigh just discarding it. When fabricating a job, order “insurance” materials. A few extra lengths of moulding, and extra sheet or two of sequenced matched and numbered panels are a good safety net because “stuff” happens. Moulding profiles will vary slightly from batch to batch and photo-reactive woods such as cherry and mahogany cannot be used reliably from job to job especially if there is to be a clear finish applied, due to color changes that take place over time. A month or so after the ”end” of the job, discard the “insurance” and move on to the next one. To do a job without a slight bit of overage will cost you in the long run and holding onto the materials afterward is not a good economic use of shop space. In certain parts of the country where there are fireplaces and wood burning stoves, make a friend and recycle your hardwoods. Shop space and efficiency is always at a premium so “clean out the dead wood” both figuratively and literally.

 

Try new things, take risks, but set a reasonable time frame to get the project done and do it. A “round tuit” may be a cute phrase to have on a kitchen trivet, but it does not work in a business environment. Do it or don’t. If you cannot finish it, do not waste any time on a project that will not come to fruition.

 

Buy tools “ready to go.” The amount of money spent by purchasing it in a “kit form” will easily be spent in man-hours getting it up and running. Having built a “Flutemaster” (a router table for making accurate fluted columns) I found that the time spent on making the table and setting it up was many times the “cost” of the kit. After a year and finding someone with a CNC, the tool became useless to me (and it never worked as well as I had hoped) and hence was discarded. Knowing all the time and effort I had spent in getting it up and running, it was difficult to make the decision to get rid of it, but seeing it every day and needing the shop space it needed to go. In addition, my ego did not need to be constantly reminded of this particular mistake.

 

Penny wise and dollar foolish- the same thing holds true for suppliers. Saving a few hundred dollars on a shipment from and unknown source coming at an unspecified time is just not worth the risk in an industry where timing is so crucial.

 

We have all made costly mistakes in our businesses, some from bidding mistakes or other “front office” decisions and some from day to day practices. Now is a good time to step back and look at those mistakes for a final time, get rid of them and start off with new practices and a new outlook on your operation.